RELATE TO IT RIDER: Will Jackways

Will took us to Cardrona,NZ to show his home resort.always ride with the locals if you want to have great all terrain day at the resort!… we ended up our fun day in Cardrona to this really famous JibRock. photo: Teemu Lahtinen

So Will, how did you and Antti hook up?

– Antti was out here in New Zealand competing in the World Heli Challenge, and we just became friends during the event. The WHC is so fun and a great way to meet new people and get stoked on riding in the backcountry together in a mellow contest environment. I always looked up to Antti from when I was a youngster, so to meet him and have him out here in NZ and riding together was awesome.

When was the first time you heard about Antti’s project and what did you think of it?

– I guess the first time I saw or heard about his project was from the Internet–like a lot of things theses days. I watched the section when they were in Revelstoke and was pumped to see them shredding pow, riding nice pillow lines and getting great snow. They were all ripping and it just looked like they were having a lot of fun doing it–the way that snowboarding should be shown. So from them on I watched another Episode of them in Norway an was stoked on the project and continued to follow it. I’m stoked to see Antti doing something cool and new and doing it his way.

What do you think about being part of this project?

– I think that it’s rad! Like we only got to film a small hand full of days here in NZ together, so I’m not sure how much of a part I’ll be, but the days we did film were super fun. To shred together with Antti was a real blast. He has an awesome energy to be around, and when filming together it doesn’t feel like any pressure: just fun riding and enjoying it as it unfolds. It seems that’s when you get the most unique content. I hope we can film more during this northern hemisphere. We’ll see, I guess.

Where were you shooting with the crew and how was it?

– We shot for a couple of days around the local resorts here in Wanaka, so up Cardrona and TC. Both are mountains I grew up at so it was cool to be able to show Antti around and share with him the places that I rode as a young kid. We didn’t get amazing snow but still hiked around and managed to do okay. We also had one day out heliing with Southern Lakes Heliski, which was a lot of fun. They took us to some great spots, we hit a cool natural style kicker and rode some good snow. On the whole I wish I’d had the chance to shoot more with him, but being on different schedules and winter is often quite busy down here for me… I was stoked to even be able to get those days.

Will checking new terrain with our guides Stu and Tucker!photo: Teemu Lahtinen

You’ve been working with some cool projects earlier too. Videograss is one of the coolest gangs in the business right now. How was it working with them? Partying all the time, right?

– It was a real experience to be a part of the VG crew this past winter. Videograss have been making great movies and have a bunch of heavy hitting riders in their crew for sure. I just went in with the attitude that I wanted to learn off some of the other guys, ride features that looked fun to me and enjoy my season. I definitely learned a bunch and on the whole it was an awesome crew to be apart of. We didn’t party that much to be honest, a few nights towards the end of spring-time, but during filming it was more or less kept kind of quite. Few mellow beers after a good day or sushi together, things like that ..

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New Zealand is not the most familiar places to grow up riding. Tell me about the scene and riding there.

– Yeah, it does have a pretty mellow scene and growing up here was awesome. I’ve lived here in Wanaka almost my whole life so to have the mountains so close and learning to ski at a young age was a real bonus. The Scene is pretty chill, but more recently NZ riders are doing well on an International stage, and with athletes from all over the world coming down here to ride and train during the off season, NZ is being put on the map and continues to grow. The riding here can be a bit hit and miss depending on the snow year. On its day you can get some great conditions down here and if you have budget to Heli then potentially you get some of the best riding you can have. For the most part snow can tend to be a little slim on average, but NZ has good terrain and freestyle mountains with places like Cardrona and Snowpark doing a great job with their park and pipe. The club fields here are also worth checking out and offer a unique experience in the mountains.

Where can we see your riding this year than Relate To It?

– I filmed for VG this past winter, so I’ll have a part in their movie Enlighten which comes out in October I think. I think Monster are putting out a web-edit from winter with some of the B-footy and so on. Then just a couple of internet piece’s from here in NZ.